A
group of students from Mexico have built several solar powered and
electric twin hulled boats made from empty soda and aerosol cans.

Jose Villarreal Torres
says: "

"GREETING FROM
MEXICO."

"Solar boat 2, constructed with soda water
bottles, has greater stability. He is very original and creative, but,
the arrow with propela, is very long, I consider to construct a short
axis but and to lower to the motor at the level of the water,
encapsulating the motor with wax, in a receiver of photographic
film."

"I send photo of a model impelled with
solar energy, that she has good results, good stability, and good speed.
10 meters in 45 SECONDS. Using 3 photovoltaic cells of 1 volt, 250
miliamperes."

You
can see the pictures below and this may give you ideas for making your own
solar powered models, which we'd like to see. NK

Barbie is a best-selling fashion doll launched in
1959. The doll is produced by Mattel,
Inc., and is a major source of revenue for the company. The American
businesswoman Ruth
Handler (1916-2002) is regarded as the creator of Barbie, and the
doll's design was based on another doll that she had found during a trip
to Germany.

Barbie has been an important part of the toy fashion doll
market for nearly fifty years, and has been the subject of numerous
controversies and lawsuits,
often involving parody
of the doll and her lifestyle. In recent years, Barbie has faced
increasing competition from the Bratz
range of dolls.

The original Barbie
doll was launched in March 1959

History

Ruth
Handler watched her daughter Barbara at play with paper dolls, and
noticed that she often enjoyed giving them adult roles. At the time, most
children's toy dolls were representations of infants. Realizing that there
could be a gap in the market, Handler suggested the idea of an
adult-bodied doll to her husband Elliot, a co-founder of the Mattel
toy company. He was unenthusiastic about the idea, as were Mattel's
directors.

During a trip to
Germany
in 1956 with her children Barbara and Kenneth, Ruth Handler discovered a
German doll called Bild
Lilli in a shop window. The adult-figured Lilli doll was exactly what
Handler had in mind, so she purchased three of them. She gave one to her
daughter and took the others back to Mattel. The Lilli doll was based on a
popular character appearing in a comic
strip drawn by Reinhard Beuthin for the newspaper Die
Bild-Zeitung. Lilli was a working girl who knew what she wanted
and was not above using men to get it. The Lilli doll was first sold in
Germany in 1955, and although it was initially sold to adults, it became
popular with children who enjoyed dressing her up in outfits that were
available separately.

Upon her return to the
United
States, Handler reworked the design of the doll (with help from
engineer Jack
Ryan) and the doll was given a new name, Barbie, after
Handler's daughter Barbara. The doll made its debut at the American
International Toy Fair in New
York on March
9, 1959.
This date is also used as Barbie's official birthday.
Mattel acquired the rights to the Bild
Lilli doll in 1964 and production of Lilli was stopped. The first
Barbie doll wore a black and white zebra striped swimsuit and signature
topknot ponytail,
and was available as either a blonde
or brunette.
The doll was marketed as a "Teen-age Fashion Model," with her
clothes created by Mattel fashion designer Charlotte Johnson. Around
350,000 Barbie dolls were sold during the first year of production.

Ruth Handler believed that it was important for Barbie to
have an adult appearance, and early market
research showed that some parents were unhappy about the doll's chest,
which had distinct breasts. Barbie's appearance has been changed many
times, most notably in 1971 when the doll's eyes were adjusted to look
forwards rather than having the demure sideways glance of the original
model.

Barbie was one of the first
toys
to have a marketing strategy based extensively on television
advertising,
which has been copied widely by other toys. It is estimated that over a
billion Barbie dolls have been sold worldwide in over 150 countries, with
Mattel claiming that three Barbie dolls are sold every second.

The standard range of Barbie dolls and related accessories
are manufactured to approximately 1/6th
scale, which is also known as playscale.
Barbie products include not only the range of dolls with their clothes and
accessories, but also a huge range of Barbie branded goods such as books,
fashion items and video
games. Barbie has appeared in a series of animated films and makes a
brief guest appearance in the 1999 film Toy
Story 2.

Almost uniquely for a toy fashion doll, Barbie has become
a cultural
icon and has been given honors that are rare in the toy world. In 1974
a section of Times
Square in New
York City was renamed Barbie Boulevard for a week, while in 1985 the
artist Andy
Warhol created a painting of Barbie.

A
Barbie Doll riding a radio controlled model boat

made
from aerosol cans in Mexico - nice one!

Biography

Barbie's full name is Barbara Millicent Roberts.
According to the Random
House novels of the 1960s, her parents' names are George and Margaret
Roberts of Willows, Wisconsin.
Barbie has been said to attend Willows High School in Willows, Wisconsin
and Manhattan International High School in New
York City, (based on the real-life Stuyvesant
High School). She has an on-off romantic relationship with her beau Ken
(Ken Carson), who first appeared in 1961. Like Barbie, Ken shares
his name with one of Ruth Handler's children. A news
release from Mattel in February 2004 announced that Barbie and Ken had
decided to split up, but in February 2006 they were back together again.

Barbie has had over forty
pets
including cats
and dogs, horses,
a panda, a
lion
cub, and a zebra.
She has owned a wide range of vehicles, including pink convertibles,
trailers and jeeps.
She also holds a pilot's
license, and operates commercial airliners in addition to serving as a flight
attendant. Barbie's
careers are designed to show that women can take on a variety of roles
in life, and the doll has been sold with a wide range of titles including Miss
Astronaut Barbie (1965), Doctor Barbie (1988) and Nascar
Barbie (1998).

Mattel has created a range of companions for Barbie,
including Hispanic
Teresa, African
American Christie and Steven (Christie's boyfriend). For more details,
see the List
of Barbie's friends and family.

Barbie facing comparison with the Middle Eastern
Fulla
doll

Controversies

Barbie's popularity ensures that her effect on the play of
Western children attracts a high degree of scrutiny. The criticisms
leveled at her are often based on the assumption that children consider
Barbie a role model and will attempt to emulate her.

In September 2003 the
Middle
Eastern country of Saudi
Arabia outlawed the sale of Barbie dolls, saying that she did not
conform to the ideals of Islam.
The Committee
for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice stated "Jewish
Barbie dolls, with their revealing clothes and shameful postures,
accessories and tools are a symbol of decadence to the perverted West.
Let us beware of her dangers and be careful."
In Middle Eastern countries there is an alternative doll called Fulla
who is similar to Barbie but is designed to be more acceptable to an
Islamic market. Fulla is not made by the Mattel Corporation. In Iran,
Sara
and Dara dolls are available as an alternative to Barbie.

The word Barbie has come to be used as a
derogatory slang
term for a girl
or woman
who is considered shallow, most notably in the song Barbie
Girl (see Parodies and
lawsuits below). In 1992 Mattel released Teen Talk Barbie,
which spoke a number of phrases including "Will we ever have
enough clothes?", "I love shopping!", and "Wanna
have a pizza
party?" Each doll was programmed to say four out of 270 possible
phrases, so that no two dolls were likely to be the same. One of these
270 phrases was "Math
class is tough!" Although only about 1.5% of all the dolls sold
said the phrase, it caused a public outcry.

One of the most common criticisms of Barbie is that
she promotes an unrealistic idea of body image for a woman, leading to
a risk that women who attempt to emulate her will become anorexic.
A standard Barbie doll is 11.5 inches tall, giving a height of 5 feet
9 inches at 1/6
scale. Barbie's vital statistics have been estimated at 36 inches
(chest), 18 inches (waist) and 33 inches (hips). According to research
by the University Central Hospital in Helsinki, Finland,
she would lack the 17 to 22 percent body fat required for a woman to menstruate.
In 1997 Barbie's body mold was redesigned and given a wider waist,
with Mattel saying that this would make the doll better suited to
contemporary fashion designs.

Oreo Fun Barbie from 1997 became
controversial

due to a negative interpretation of the doll's name

"Colored
Francie"
made her debut in 1967, and she is sometimes described as the first African
American Barbie doll. However, she was produced using the existing
molds for the Caucasian
Francie doll and lacked correct ethnic features other than a dark
skin. The first African American doll in the Barbie range is usually
regarded as Christie, who made her debut in 1968.
Black Barbie and Hispanic Barbie were launched in 1980.

In 1997 Mattel joined forces with
Nabisco
to launch a cross-promotion of Barbie with Oreo cookies.
Oreo Fun Barbie was marketed as someone with whom little girls
could play after class and share "America's favorite
cookie." As had become the custom, Mattel manufactured both a white
and a black
version. Critics argued that in the African
American community Oreo is a derogatory term for a person
like the chocolate sandwich cookie itself, meaning that the person is
black on the outside and white on the inside. The doll was
unsuccessful and Mattel recalled the unsold stock, making it sought
after by collectors.

In May 1997 Mattel introduced Share a Smile Becky,
a doll in a pink wheelchair.
Kjersti Johnson, a 17-year-old high school student in Tacoma,
Washington with cerebral
palsy, pointed out that the doll would not fit into the elevator
of Barbie's $100 Dream House. Mattel announced that it would redesign
the house in the future to accommodate the doll.

In March 2000 stories appeared in the media claiming
that the hard vinyl
used in vintage Barbie dolls could leak toxic chemicals, causing
danger to children playing with them. The claim was rejected as false
by technical experts. A modern Barbie doll has a body made from ABS
plastic, while the head is made from soft PVC.

In December 2005 Dr. Agnes Nairn at the
University
of Bath in England
published research suggesting that girls often go through a stage
where they hate their Barbie dolls and subject them to a range of
punishments, including decapitation
and placing the doll in a microwave
oven. Dr. Nairn said: "It's as though disavowing Barbie is a
rite of passage and a rejection of their past."

The 1997 song Barbie
Girl by Aqua
led to a five year lawsuit

Parodies and lawsuits

Barbie has often been referenced in
popular
culture and is frequently the target of parody.
Some of these occasions include:

In 1997 The
Danish
pop-dance group Aqua
released a song called Barbie
Girl. It contained lyrics such as "You can brush my
hair / Undress me everywhere" and used graphics similar to
the pink Barbie logo.
Mattel argued that this constituted a trademark
infringement and filed a defamation
lawsuit against MCA
Records on September
11, 1997.
In July 2002, Judge Alex
Kozinski ruled that the song was protected as a parody under the First
Amendment to the United States Constitution.

A commercial by
automobile
company Nissan
featuring dolls similar to Barbie and Ken was the subject of another
lawsuit in 1997. In the commercial, a female doll is lured into a car
by a doll resembling GI
Joe to the dismay of a Ken-like doll, accompanied by Van
Halen's version of the song You
Really Got Me. According to the makers of the commercial, the
dolls' names were Roxanne, Nick and Tad. Mattel claimed that the
commercial had done "irreparable damage" to its products,
but lost the copyright
infringement lawsuit.

The
Tonight Show with Jay Leno displayed a fictional "Barbie Crystal
Meth Lab" which mocked how Barbie usually has a career that
is "in keeping with the times or in this case, in keeping with
society's current problems."

Malibu
Stacy is a parody of Barbie in the cartoon series The
Simpsons. In the 1994 episode Lisa
vs. Malibu Stacy Lisa is disgusted by the "sexist
drivel spouted by Malibu Stacy", leading her to market an
alternative "Lisa Lionheart".

In 1999 Mattel sued the
Utah artist
Tom Forsythe over a series of photographs called Food Chain Barbie,
which included a photograph of a Barbie doll in a blender.
Mattel lost the lawsuit and was ordered to pay $1.8 million in costs
to Mr. Forsythe.

In November 2002 a
New
York judge refused an injunction
against the British-based
artist Susanne Pitt, who had produced a doll called Dungeon
Barbie in bondage
clothing. Judge Laura Taylor Swain stated: "To the court's
knowledge, there is no Mattel line of S&M
Barbie."

Collecting

Mattel estimates that there are well over 100,000 avid
Barbie collectors. Ninety percent are women, at an average age of 40,
purchasing more than twenty Barbie dolls each year. Forty-five percent of
them spend upwards of $1000 a year.

Vintage Barbie dolls from the early years are the most
valuable at auction,
and while the original Barbie was sold for $3.00 in 1959, a mint boxed
Barbie from 1959 sold for $3552.50 on eBay
in October 2004.
On September
26, 2006,
a Barbie doll set a world record at auction of 9,000 pounds sterling (US
$17,000) at Christie's
in London.
The doll was a Barbie in Midnight Red from 1965 and was part of a private
collection of 4,000 Barbie dolls being sold by two Dutch
women, Ietje Raebel and her daughter Marina.

In recent years Mattel has sold a wide range of Barbie
dolls aimed specifically at collectors, including porcelain
versions and depictions of Barbie as a range of characters from television
series such as The
Munsters and Star
Trek.
There are also collector's edition dolls depicting Barbie dolls with a
range of different ethnic identities.
In 2004 Mattel introduced the Color Tier system for its collector's
edition Barbie dolls, ranging through pink, silver, gold and platinum
depending on how many of the dolls are produced.

My Scene Barbie dolls are the subject of a

lawsuit from the creators of Bratz
dolls

Barbie versus Bratz

In June 2001
MGA
Entertainment launched the Bratz
range of dolls, a move that would give Barbie her first serious
competition in the fashion doll market. In 2004 sales figures showed that
Bratz dolls were outselling Barbie dolls in the United
Kingdom, although Mattel maintained that in terms of the number of
dolls, clothes and accessories sold, Barbie remained the leading brand.
In 2005 figures showed that sales of Barbie dolls had fallen by 30% in the
United
States, and by 18% worldwide, with much of the drop being attributed
to the popularity of Bratz dolls.

In April 2005, MGA Entertainment filed a
lawsuit
against Mattel, claiming that the My
Scene range of Barbie dolls had copied the doe-eyed look of Bratz
dolls. The lawsuit is currently pending in the court system of California.

Mattel is also suing MGA
Entertainment and Carter Bryant,
a former doll designer for Mattel, claiming that company secrets were
stolen by MGA.